I was having a little fun with the gmap pedometer again today. I was comparing the routes I used to take to walk to school when I was a kid. I was always a map geek, always trying to find the best route. I used to draw freestyle maps of how I got to school, or of the route our family would take to New York. I had no idea how accurate my internal distance meter was, even at such a young age.
There were three routes to get to school. There was the officially sanctioned parental route, the "cool kids walk this way" route, and there was the one I discovered a few years later. The driving route was much longer than any of those and was never considered.
I remembered starting off with the official route for most of my school years. It had the best car access, and didn't go through any parks, which my mother worried way too much about. It was easy to find me if I was taking too long to get home from school. It was 990 metres.
Eventually I wanted to walk home and to school with some different kids. The "cool kids" route was the most popular, as it went through the centre of the neighbourhood and had no cars. I knew it was longer, but it turned out to only be 1200 metres. Sure it's 20%, but really, how far is 200 metres?
The last route I discovered with a friend was definitely the quietest. There were maybe two other kids who took that route. I didn't know if it really was shorter than the official route, but it felt faster. Just a bit. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, or if it really was. It turns out that it was 900 metres. I'm surprised how accurate my judgement was.
Of course this is all just because I was really lazy, and wanted to stay in bed as long as I could before leaving for school. That 90 metres I saved probably added up to an extra few hours in bed a year.
Strange thing though, we had a kilometre club in our school where we would run 1k laps around the neighbourhood and get a card punched every time we went around. It was only 700 metres. I feel cheated. The year I ran 115k was actually much less. Bummer.
There were three routes to get to school. There was the officially sanctioned parental route, the "cool kids walk this way" route, and there was the one I discovered a few years later. The driving route was much longer than any of those and was never considered.
I remembered starting off with the official route for most of my school years. It had the best car access, and didn't go through any parks, which my mother worried way too much about. It was easy to find me if I was taking too long to get home from school. It was 990 metres.
Eventually I wanted to walk home and to school with some different kids. The "cool kids" route was the most popular, as it went through the centre of the neighbourhood and had no cars. I knew it was longer, but it turned out to only be 1200 metres. Sure it's 20%, but really, how far is 200 metres?
The last route I discovered with a friend was definitely the quietest. There were maybe two other kids who took that route. I didn't know if it really was shorter than the official route, but it felt faster. Just a bit. I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, or if it really was. It turns out that it was 900 metres. I'm surprised how accurate my judgement was.
Of course this is all just because I was really lazy, and wanted to stay in bed as long as I could before leaving for school. That 90 metres I saved probably added up to an extra few hours in bed a year.
Strange thing though, we had a kilometre club in our school where we would run 1k laps around the neighbourhood and get a card punched every time we went around. It was only 700 metres. I feel cheated. The year I ran 115k was actually much less. Bummer.
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